Chapter Text
“Get away, freak!”
Lloyd flinched as the shoe thrown his way struck his arm, which had shielded his face. He sent the offender a startled and horrified glance, but scurried away as fast as he could.
He’d just been trying to go for a walk.
Was it that hard to leave him alone?
As he rounded the corner of the block, Kai stalked past him, furious. “Hey!” He shouted to the shoe thrower. “What do you think you’re—”
Lloyd grit his teeth and yanked his brother’s arm, dragging them both away from the angry citizen. “Kai, stop,” he demanded shakily. Kai whirled on him with a fiery glare and Lloyd flinched back. “It’s not worth it.”
Kai had to visibly restrain himself. “Lloyd,” he forced out, “it’s always worth it.”
“No,” Lloyd retorted immediately. “Not if it might expose you. Now more than ever.” Angry shouts echoed from the street they’d been—more people gathering, usually those with weapons, trying to chase after Lloyd and find where he liked to hide. “We need to go.”
Kai radiated a furious heat, his hair smoking, but silently followed Lloyd as they vanished into the shadows and made their way back to the warehouse.
It was only three days after the Ninja had beaten Morro. Garmadon had only waited until Lloyd awoke before he disappeared back to his volcano. Koko had stayed at the base, since their home was no longer safe—graffiti covered the door, and threats were carved into the door. The city had immediately turned on their once-renounced hero with anger and violence.
The Ninja, of course, did everything they could to keep Lloyd safe. But he was sick of needing another person to do his errands or escort him when he grew restless. He’d tried to sneak out to walk around the outskirts of the city on his own, homesickness plaguing him, but even that had been too much. Kai had followed him anyway and even the suburbs wanted nothing to do with the son of Garmadon.
The other big reveal for Lloyd when he woke up was that the Ninja hadn’t cared who he was behind the mask. They’d already worked through any misgivings and only wanted a speedy recovery for Lloyd. He’d learned their true identities after he woke up when he’d stumbled out of the med bay into a room full of unmasked warriors.
The shock had nearly knocked him out again.
But the others had only been elated to see him standing, though when they tried for a group hug, he slipped free.
Once they returned, Nya shot to her feet from repairing her mech and stalked over. “What were you thinking, Lloyd?” She demanded, stopping just short of him and glaring intensely. “Going out alone! You could’ve been hurt!”
Lloyd grit his teeth. “I don’t need a babysitter,” he replied tightly.
Kai reached for his shoulder. “Buddy, we—”
“Don’t touch me!” Lloyd shrieked, jerking away.
At this point, everyone else in the warehouse was well aware of his return and their conversation. At Lloyd’s exclamation, the other Ninja slowly approached, each one of them with expressions ranging from concern to alarm to pity.
Always pity.
“Lloyd,” Black—Cole Brookstone—breathed. “We’re just worried—”
Lloyd backed away, suddenly feeling cornered. His mother watched from the back with an unreadable expression, but unlike the others, made no attempt to get close to him as he retreated. “Just…” Lloyd swallowed thickly. “Don’t touch me.”
Finally Koko moved, swiftly stepping between the Ninja and Lloyd. “Give him space,” she snapped. The others clearly wanted to protest, but Lloyd’s pleading glance and Koko’s glare told them off. They reluctantly backed down, leaving Kai and Nya as the last two.
The blond refused to meet their eyes.
“Lloyd,” Kai started eventually. “I know you don’t like this. None of us do. But please don’t be that reckless.”
Lloyd tried to suppress his rising anger and only responded with a curt nod.
Kai sighed heavily and tugged his sister away.
The ground was going to combust if Lloyd kept glaring at it the way he was.
He felt a hand approach and instinctively flinched away. Koko sighed slowly. “They worry because they care,” she reminded him gently. “You do know that, right?”
Lloyd’s shoulders slumped. “I know,” he replied. “I just…”
“You don’t want to be ostracized,” Koko finished for him. When Lloyd didn’t move, she circled around to face him. “And now it’s not safe anywhere.”
He nodded numbly.
“We’ll find a way to change their minds,” Koko promised.
Lloyd finally looked up, nothing but pain in his expression. Koko’s brow furrowed and she stepped closer but not quite touching. “How?” He rasped.
His mother frowned. “I don’t know yet. But we’ll figure it out together.”
The Green Ninja forced a thin smile and turned away.
They wouldn’t be able to change anyone’s minds.
***
It happened again the next day.
Cole, masked and suited up as the Black Ninja, and Lloyd as Green went on their usual patrol at night, keeping to the shadows. Their movements were slower than normal, and Lloyd had to pause for a breather more often than he’d like to admit—but he refused to sit around. He needed to do some good after all the harm Morro had caused. Cole didn’t seem to mind hanging back a bit.
A gunshot made them both pause.
“Well,” Cole sighed. “That can’t be good.”
He led the way towards a nearby alley and peered over the edge. Lloyd joined him a moment later, ignoring the way his arms shook when he lowered himself to the rooftop, and glanced down. Six street thugs fought hand-to-hand, one of them trying to use a gun but failing miserably.
“Someone’s gonna get killed,” Lloyd muttered.
Cole nodded in agreement. “Three each?” He mused. “I like those odds.”
“How about you get four and I get two?” Lloyd countered with a sheepish grin.
Cole laughed and nodded in agreement. “Sounds good, bud. Ready?”
Lloyd shifted his position, prepared to spring to his feet. “Ready.”
He scurried for the fire escape while Cole simply jumped off the building near the alley exit, his powers cushioning his fall and making a dramatic entrance. Lloyd rolled his eyes as he swiftly dropped to the ground on the other side of the alley.
The thugs immediately stopped fighting and lunged for Lloyd.
The Green Ninja yelped and ducked out of the way. He slid under a fist and rolled out of the way of a steel-toed kick. His injuries from Morro burned at the extreme motions.
Cole stepped in front of him with a swing of his hammer, glaring furiously at the thugs.
They’d both been tricked. None of the thugs were rivals—it had been a fake fight to get the Ninja to show up and ambush Lloyd. Both Ninja realized that when the thugs joined up and pointed various weapons their way—including the gun.
“Hey, now.” Lloyd held up his hands, showing he was unarmed. He didn’t tell them it was because he lacked the strength to hold a weapon for long. “This doesn’t have to get violent.”
“You made it violent when you destroyed my house!” The one with the gun snapped.
Lloyd flinched back and the ground trembled slightly as Cole’s grip on his hammer tightened. “That wasn’t me,” he tried. “I—it was a ghost.”
Another thug scoffed in disbelief. “Nah, it was yer face on them television screens,” he snarled. “Yer the only one here who looks like that.”
“One life for all the ones you took?” A female thug questioned rhetorically, unsheathing her own gun. Her face, cast in shadows, sent shivers down Lloyd’s spine. “Seems fair to me.”
Lloyd tensed, lowering into a defensive stance, and saw Cole do the same. The thugs waited for them to make a move.
Then everything happened so fast.
A loud Bang! echoed through the small alley. At the same time, Cole’s hammer smashed into the ground and a thick stone barrier sprang upwards and blocked off the thugs from the street. Lloyd stumbled to the ground as if someone had pushed him, his left arm going numb.
Dazed, Lloyd watched Cole leap over the barrier and fight the thugs one-on-six.
It seemed like moments later when his teammate reappeared, hammer draped over his back, minor scrapes on his body but nothing too serious. No sounds came from the alley. Lloyd stared in confusion as Cole’s expression went slack with horror.
“Oh, FSM,” his friend hissed. “They did get you.”
Cole reached for his arm but stopped just shy of his gi.
Confused, Lloyd glanced down.
The fabric of his upper sleeve was torn in a circular hole, exposing his arm. He could feel the sleeve getting wet and sticky.
“Oh,” he realized numbly. “They shot me.”
When Cole reached to lift him off the ground, he didn’t protest, his mind whirling.
They shot me. They actually shot me.
He’d never been shot before.
Still dazed, he barely reacted the entire way back to the base, stumbling a little as Cole led him through the back streets. His arm felt numb, hanging limply by his side.
Then, all of a sudden, the pain hit.
Lloyd gasped breathlessly and tripped, collapsing to the ground when he caught Cole by surprise. His arm burned with agony and his eyes went wide as he stared at the blood coming from the wound.
“We can’t stop, Lloyd,” Cole urged desperately. “Not here. It’s not safe.” He tried to pull Lloyd to his feet but the younger shifted away. Cole groaned in annoyance.
“They shot me,” Lloyd muttered uneasily. “They—”
“They’ll do a lot worse if they catch us,” Cole interrupted with uncharacteristic urgency. “Come on.” He reached to help Lloyd off the ground again but he slowly backed away. “FSM you’re so stubborn.”
Lloyd pushed himself up, legs shaky.
Cole paced urgently, their pace slower now that Lloyd refused to let Cole touch him. Lloyd’s vision swam with pain and disbelief and betrayal.
He’d saved the city countless times, and the one moment they found out who he was and happened to be possessed, they turned on him.
Vicious—
Ungrateful—
Hateful—
Sovereign—
citizens.
“Lloyd?”
The Ninja blinked owlishly at the concerned expression of Zane standing near him. When had he gotten to the med bay? Cole watched worriedly from over Zane’s shoulder, bandages in hand. They both watched Lloyd warily.
“I need to touch you to get the bullet out,” Zane spoke quietly, drawing Lloyd’s attention back to the Ice Ninja. “And stitch the wound. Can I do that?”
He nodded once.
Zane immediately grabbed his arm with gentle hands, one supporting it while the other held a pair of forceps. “This will hurt,” he warned.
Lloyd nodded again, already braced for the pain.
It didn’t take long, likely due to Zane’s enhanced senses. But the action caused another wave of agony to shoot through Lloyd’s arm and blood to flow freely.
When Lloyd could breathe through the pain again, the wound was fully stitched and bandaged, and Zane had released his grip.
“The angle of the shot is peculiar,” Zane mused. “How were you standing when it happened?”
Silently, Lloyd slid off the bed and demonstrated. His arm protested the movement.
Zane’s expression darkened as he fetched a sling and gave it to Lloyd to put his arm in alone. “I believe they did not intend to simply injure you,” he informed them grimly. “I think they aimed for your heart and missed.”
Lloyd’s stomach churned with horror. Cole’s face paled.
Before either of them could say anything, Koko burst into the room. “Lloyd!” She exclaimed upon seeing him standing and in a sling. “What happened?”
“Some thugs got the jump on us,” Cole replied when Lloyd couldn’t find the words. “They had guns. Got a lucky shot.”
“Unlucky,” Zane reminded.
Koko sent him an alarmed look that he missed.
“Not now, Zane,” Cole sighed. Turning back to Lloyd’s mom, he added, “We got out in time and I took care of the thugs.”
No one bothered to ask just how he took care of them. He wouldn’t have killed them, and he’d walked away without anyone’s blood on him, but if they received a bad concussion? No one would be surprised.
Lloyd stumbled towards the door. When Koko called after him, he waved her off. “I need a bit,” he mumbled. “Alone.”
He slipped from the warehouse without anyone seeing him and made his way to the roof.
He knew people hated him now after Morro’s possession.
But not like that.
“So maybe this isn’t the best time?”
Lloyd yelped and shot to his feet as a glitching green figure appeared next to him.
“M—Morro?!” Lloyd demanded, backing away. The ghost didn’t follow, his expression neutral. “How—what are you doing here?”
Morro crossed his arms, some green dust trailing after him and vanishing. “I don’t have a lot of time, Lloyd,” he replied instead of answering. “I need to speak with you.”
The Green Ninja scoffed and glowered at the ghost. “Not like I can fight back, after what you did to me.”
Morro actually winced.
“My curse is gone, Lloyd, I can’t stay long.” The ghost glitched again, reappearing slightly less visible. “I know I hurt you, and your friends. I—” He grimaced.
“You got that right,” Lloyd snapped. “And now my life’s going to hell because of you.” He gestured to his injured arm.
Morro frowned. “I was jealous,” he tried. “I was promised the green gi and then it was taken away from me. I thought I had a family, and you do have one, and I—”
“Get it out!” Lloyd interrupted icily. “You don’t need to remind me!”
The ghost grit his teeth at the outburst. “I’m sorry.”
Lloyd froze.
“What?”
“I’m sorry, Lloyd,” Morro repeated. He glitched, barely visible now. “I shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me. You do deserve the gi much more than I did.” A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “I’m not cut out to be a leader like you are. And I see now that maybe it’s not so bad.” His body glitched faster, only visible if someone was looking for him. “I can never make it up to you or your friends. But if you ever need an ally from the Departed Realm, I’ll come when you call.”
Lloyd had to remember to breathe.
After all that hate and pain…Morro knew he was in the wrong.
And Lloyd wanted to hate him. The ghost had put him through the worst pain of his life, made him hurt and almost kill his friends, destroyed some of the city, and revealed his identity to everyone.
But holding onto a personal grudge was not like the Green Ninja.
“I don’t forgive you,” Lloyd replied eventually, his tone firm. He met Morro’s gaze with fire and no fear, making the ghost actually flinch back. “But I accept your apology.”
Morro exhaled in relief. “Thank you,” he breathed.
“You got all that from Master Wu, didn’t you?” Lloyd added with a smirk.
The ghost glowered at him and Lloyd preened in his mini victory over his once-tormentor. “If you ever make that connection again—”
The Green Ninja grinned. “Blackmail, then,” he crowed. “It’s only fair.”
Morro caved with a sigh and glitched. “Until we meet again, Lloyd.” And he bowed.
To Lloyd.
The Ninja gave an awkward half-bow in reply, his arm in the sling making the action difficult.
With one final glitch, Morro was gone.
Lloyd stared at the spot the ghost had disappeared in shock. To say this is not how he thought his afternoon would go was…an understatement.
But he kept it to himself.
***
The Ninja went on separate patrols the next day, and although Lloyd never crossed paths with anyone, he knew they were nearby.
He’d elected to go without the sling for the convenience of mobility. His arm hurt to pull on, so he didn’t use the rooftops to travel; instead he kept to the shadows of the streets with a discreet black hoodie over his gi and head bowed whenever he crossed paths with another person.
The city teamed with citizens trying to go about their lives and bring back normalcy. Various news stations roamed the streets, randomly talking to passerbys, then returning to the camera. And Lloyd heard all of it— “The Green Ninja is Lloyd Garmadon!” “He’s turned on the city!” “Will he corrupt the other Ninja? Let’s hope not!” and other propaganda against him.
He grit his teeth and pushed his hands deeper into his pockets. They were using him to make a living. Disgusting.
He wandered past a bakery with open-air seating. He was the topic of conversation at every single table. Most people thought he was a traitor. One tentatively suggested that it could all be a hoax and he was the unfortunate victim; an easy scapegoat. Unbeknownst to the customer, Lloyd shot her a grateful look. But her idea was quickly shot down with “evidence” damning the Ninja.
Lloyd left before anyone could recognize his face.
He saw graffiti on the walls of some buildings. Posters on stores saying No Ninja allowed. News stations covered every time he’d made one tiny mistake—accidentally bumping into someone, making people scared when he walked near them, even texting on his phone, as if he was contacting Garmadon. Little things that normal people did every day and no one batted an eye. But he was the Son of Garmadon, he didn’t do “normal.”
It hadn’t even been a week and everyone hated his very existence.
Lloyd struggled to contain his anger.
He decided to turn away from the city and found a quiet spot on the beach to sit alone. He pulled his hoodie off and let the sun warm his black and green gi. Gentle waves lapped at the sand.
He stared out at his father’s volcano.
“No one hates you in there,” he whispered to himself, pulling his legs to his body and wrapping his good arm around them while the injured left stayed tucked close to his chest.
The longer Lloyd sat there in silence, the more he realized. The entire city hated him. He’d hurt the Ninja and family, the only people close to him, with his own hands. His father had allied with the Ninja to save him, even if it was temporary.
No one in the city would even accept his help if Garmadon attacked again.
He had nothing left to fight for anymore.
A cold void formed in his heart.
His eyes narrowed.
He didn’t want to hide. He didn’t want to cower. He was a Ninja, more powerful than almost anyone in the pathetic city behind him who’d saved their ungrateful lives for years.
And all they saw was the bad guy.
Well.
Who was he to deny them what they wanted?